


Voices

by Writer_Geekgirl



Series: Castiel and Dean: An AU Love Story [27]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Alternate Reality, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Castiel in the Bunker, Dean Winchester Uses Actual Words, Disney References, M/M, Merperson Castiel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-28
Updated: 2018-10-28
Packaged: 2019-08-08 18:09:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,369
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16434290
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Writer_Geekgirl/pseuds/Writer_Geekgirl
Summary: In the ongoing series in which the Winchesters visit alternate realities, Dean travels to a world in which merperson Castiel went the Little Mermaid route and gave up his voice to be with Dean. Dean also finally finds out why they are on this crazy trip through realities. Everyone's favorite archangel pops up.This work is part of the Destiel Promptober in which there is a different AU theme for each day in October. The AU for the day is Creature.





	Voices

Dean woke up to the sound of waves hitting the ocean and a sunbeam shining brightly through white gossamer. Both very soothing things if not for the fact that Dean had gone to sleep in the bunker. Dean sighed as he realized he had another reality shift. Some of them he enjoyed; others not too much. 

He saw the king-sized bed he was sleeping in had an indentation on the pillow next to him. Someone else had been here. He looked under his blanket to see that he had on black sweatpants. He slid out of bed and grabbed a t-shirt that was laying on top of a basket of what looked to be freshly washed laundry. He searched the adjoining bathroom. It definitely showed signs that two people shared it on a routine basis. 

He walked into the living room to find Castiel curled up on the couch in front of a bay window, watching the tide come in. He smiled at Dean when he noticed his arrival.

"Good morning, Cas," Dean said. 

Castiel held up his hand in a wave before rolling to his feet and kissing Dean. Dean relaxed into the kiss. It still felt like he was cheating on Castiel with Castiel in the universes, but he learned to go with it up to a point.

Castiel headed to another room, and Dean followed him. Castiel opened up the fridge and pulled out a carton of eggs and also opened the freezer to show him frozen waffles. He looked at Dean inquiringly. Dean read the gestures as Castiel asking which one he wanted. Dean said, "Why don't I cook breakfast for you?"

Castiel smiled widely and sat on the table. Dean looked in the refrigerator and pulled out some cheese to make omelets and bacon. Castiel was not going to eat frozen waffles on his watch. His Castiel was an angel of few words, this Castiel seemed to have no words. After he finished cooking, he sat with Castiel in comfortable silence. Castiel was constantly touching him, a tap on the shoulder, a touch on the arm, a squeeze on his knee. He communicated a lot with no words. When Castiel stood up to do the dishes, Dean said, "Let me."

Castiel shook his head vigorously. Dean said, "Ok, we'll do it together."

Castiel pouted for a moment and then started to let Dean help him. After they finished the dishes, they went for a long walk on the beach. When they got to a rock jutting out to the sea, Castiel sat on it, looking intently at the ocean. When Dean sat next to him, he smiled happily and intertwined his fingers with Dean's. He put his head on Dean's shoulder. Dean said, "It's a beautiful day. I always wanted to retire to a beach."

Castiel smiled at him and pulled his hand up to kiss it. After about twenty minutes staring at the ocean, Castiel snagged Dean's arm to look at the time on his watch. He made a hand gesture at Dean that Dean didn't understand. Castiel started scurrying back to the house, and Dean raced to keep up.

When they arrived at the house, Sam was waiting on the doorstep. Dean looked at him appraisingly to try to tell if it was his Sam or not. When Castiel made some gestures with his hand and Sam responded with similar gestures he decided it wasn't. Sam said to Dean, "My car is in the driveway if you want to take a look."

Dean followed Sam to the driveway where a beat up 72 Chevelle sat. "What the hell, Sam, why'd you let your car get like this?"

Sam looked at him oddly, "It was that way when I bought it last week. When you went with me to figure out if it was worth restoring."

Dean said, "Oh yeah. You could have given her a bath though. You don't leave a lady in this dusty condition. Turn her on, Sammy, and let me take a listen."

"The name is Sam." Sam started the car. Dean could tell right away there was an issue with the carburetor. Dean opened the garage to find his Impala inside and another old car in the middle of being restored. He glanced quickly and realized it was a '66 Camaro.

Sam asked, "Do you need to wait to work on mine until you finish restoring Crowley's Camaro. I know he's paying you big bucks for it."

Dean grinned as he realized that he must restore cars for a living in this reality. He shrugged, "Crowley can wait. I don't want this lady dying on the roadside while you are driving her."

As Dean started working on the engine, Sam sat on a crate next to him. Sam handed him tools as Dean requested them. He finally asked, "When are you going to let me teach you the sign language that Cas and I have been working on?"

Dean looked over his shoulder, "I haven't been very cooperative on that front."

"No, you haven't, and it's not fair to Cas. You aren't going to get his voice back, no matter who you bargain with, or what you do. He's adapting. You need to as well."

Dean put down the wrench and looked at Sam. He debated whether to tell Sam the truth that he wasn't his Dean.

Sam continued, "When he gave up his voice and tail to be with you, he sacrificed everything. His family, his friends, his home, his world. All of it, just to be with you. And you can't bother to learn how to let him communicate with you beyond pantomime. It's not making him feel great. He misses swimming in the ocean."

Dean stared at Sam with his mouth open. Castiel was freaking Ariel, the mermaid. Dean grumbled, "Maybe he shouldn't have done it. Maybe I'm not worth it."

"He gave you everything, and this is what you give to him. He rebelled. He did it all for you."

Dean stood there staring at Sam. He knew all the sacrifices Castiel had made for him over the years, but it seemed different through this lens. He finally muttered, "I'm a dick." Dean turned around to work on the car. He said, "I want to, Sam. But, you might have to talk to me about this again. I want to learn it all, every nuance, every gesture, all of it. But you're going to have to talk to me this way again."

"Why, Dean? Why can't you just do it."

Gabriel, the archangel, suddenly appeared next to Sam. "Because he's not your Dean."

Sam stared at Dean startled.

Dean asked Sam, "You're a hunter?"

Sam looked at Gabriel, "What the hell?"

Gabriel shrugged, "Your brother is still inside the meat suit, but he has a hitchhiker. Your Dean is fine in there, and this Dean is a lug head, but harmless."

Dean snarled at Gabriel, "You're a freaking archangel, why can't you fix his voice?"

Gabriel said, "It's a package deal. Voice or merman. I don't make the rules, Dean-o."

"You could break them."

Gabriel raised an eyebrow, "Why? Why break the rules for you? What makes you so special that you don't have to follow the same rules as everyone else?"

Dean turned to Sam, "We were both hunters, and then I retired?"

"We came to the ocean for a selkie case. You almost died, but Cas saved you. You were freaked out and wanted to hunt him at first, but I persuaded you not to. You two talked, you fell in love. Then, Cas made the choice to become human for you. He needs to be by the ocean. Even with legs, he gets super stressed if you take him more than about ten miles inland. That kind of limited the cases you could go on. So, you retired and started to restore cars."

"You still hunt?"

Sam said, "Until the end of next month when I marry Eileen."

Dean said, "So, this Dean won't learn the language, because he's fixated on getting Cas' voice back instead?"

Gabriel answered, "That about sums it up." He pulled out a grape lollipop. 

Dean looked between Gabriel and Sam, "It's because he doesn't think he's worth it. Your Dean doesn't think he's worth Castiel giving up his voice, so he refused to consider a world where Cas doesn't get it back. It's so me. Well, it was so me. I think I learned a lot in the last few months."

"What do we do to convince you…him," Sam asked.

"Get me a pencil and paper?" After Sam did, Dean walked to the back porch and sat at a table that looked over the ocean. He watched Castiel for a moment pick up shells, look at them, and put them back. Castiel waded into the water.

Dean started writing:

> _Hey Dean. I don't know if you'll remember that I hijacked you for a little bit. I assure you, it ain't my doing. But, I'm on to you. You don't think you're worth saving. You don't think you are worth Castiel giving everything up for you. But, you don't get to decide how much you're worth. You don't get to assign a price tag to yourself, because your value, who you are, comes from what those who love you think it is. Castiel thought you were worth everything he gave up to be with you. To him, you're priceless. Sam's probably done some hairbrained stunts to save your fool life. To Sam, you're priceless. Buck up, princess, and learn the friggin' sign language stuff. Until you do, you're the one responsible for taking away his voice. Learn to listen to him and give him his voice back. Believe me, you don't want to lose your Castiel. I've been through it and it sucks. Wanting to stick yourself with drugs to stop your heart beating kind of sucks. Man up. Be the person Castiel believes you already are. You're worth it. Sincerely, Other Dean._

Dean folded the paper and shoved it into the envelope that Sam had given him. He settled back in the chair to watch his Disney princess play in the sand. 

Gabriel stood next to him. "You wrote yourself a pretty blunt note there, Dean-o."

Dean didn't look at Gabriel as he responded, "It was a lesson that took me a long time to learn, Gabe. I don't have to be the man my father wanted me to be. I can be the man that I want to be. And that man believes in accepting help when it's offered, that it's okay to confess that you like romcoms, that treats his brother as an equal, that doesn't hesitate when the person in falls in love with isn't human and an unexpected gender, a man who can look in the mirror every day and tell himself, 'You deserve this.' It's been a long, hard road to get here, Gabe, but this is where I wound up."

"All these trips into alternate universes did some good?"

Dean eyed him warily, "How do you know about multiple trips?"

Gabriel smiled, "I know many things."

"Can you stop this shit? It's getting old and I learned my lesson."

Gabriel responded, "Maybe, it's not your lesson that needed to be learned. There's a Sam out there, Dean-o, that screwed up. He lost you and he lost Cas through a tear in reality, and he thought he had nothing left. So, he combined a little magic with a lot of physics and maybe a dab of archangel grace and sent himself barreling through realities trying to get his Dean and Cas back."

"A dab of archangel grace?"

"Well, maybe I overestimated a bit how much it would take. Anyway, he saw you as he was zipping through time and space as you and Sam did your little hop, skip back from the dark place and tried to grab on. Only, he just caught like the edge of your shirt tails, so you keep getting pulled onto his crazy train and then your reality snaps you back like a rubber band. Now, you could draw that same sigil that stopped you in Sandover land in your bunker, in your car, and in every hotel room you stay at and get off his crazy train. Or, you can help me try to get Sam off it and back where he belongs."

Dean glared at Gabriel, "Did you help Sam start this?"

"I did, but he pulled a fast one on me. He wasn't supposed to go careening through realities so fast. But his freakishly large nerdy brain changed the formula for the wavelengths. He hyperdrived himself because he didn't want to take the time for a slow steady search. You aren't his Dean, but he doesn't care. You're the first one he found, so he'll drag you through every Dean in the multiverse until he gets you. I just follow in his wake, trying to fix any damage you caused as you slam through realities."

"You're the one who let me fix my mistake with Atropos."

"She owed me one. I knew you would select the option to fix your mistake. You nothing if not predictable. Figure out how to stop him, Dean, before he does something I can't fix. We really don't want the consequences of him breaking the walls between realities."

Dean felt the crackling of energy around him and his vision started to fade. He heard Gabriel's voice call out, "See you in the next station on the crazy train, Dean."

When Dean woke up back in his bunker room, he got out of bed and searched for Castiel. When he found him in the kitchen making coffee, Dean kissed him softly and said, "I never tell you this enough, Cas. I know how much you sacrificed for me. I'm sorry I haven't always been the best listener when you've tried to tell me things. I promise to try to do better. And, I want to retire, but we got to do one thing first."

Castiel said pensively, "What's that, Dean?"

Dean replied, "Just save the multiverse. Nothing much."


End file.
